Renewal and innovation

Yesterday I read a blog post  that Tom Barrett wrote a few days ago about innovation.  One thing that struck me about this was that he explained that the word innovation comes from the Latin word "innovare" which means renewal.  Tom writes:

Any teacher will understand the constant questioning and reflection on what more can we do, how else can we explore these ideas, how might we approach this in a more accessible way or where can I continue to challenge these students?

What this questioning leads to, Tom writes, is creativity and taking action.  And because of this curiosity teachers become innovators, applying new ideas to improve student learning.

I think it's also important to recognise that renewal will be different from school to school.  In his post, Tom writes about how having many students working on one Google Docs was very innovative when he introduced it to his classroom over 10 years ago, and that in his role as a consultant, he finds it is still an innovation with other classes today.  What is new for one teacher or school is not necessarily the same for another.  This reminded me of the Derek Sivers video, which I'll add at the end of this post.  I shared this video recently with some teachers at school to encourage them to present what they are doing at ASB Un-Plugged in February.  They said to me "I don't think I'm doing anything new" - but again this is a great example of the fact that what might not be new to you could be really innovative for others - and therefore it is worth sharing.

It's a good reminder to me too.  As I come to the end of my time at ASB I'm thinking about all my learning over the past 6 years and how this can be shared with other teachers and schools.  I need to remind myself that this may well be innovative for them, and that this sharing can help them to renew their own schools.

Click here to read Tom's post

Photo Credit: Joe The Goat Farmer Flickr via Compfight cc